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Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 11:36:37 +0100
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To: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] New core autoloading mechanism with support for
 function autoloading
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Tommins)

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On Wed, 12 Apr 2023 at 09:24, Nicolas Grekas <nicolas.grekas+php@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> To me, class autoloading is a performance feature. If we didn't care about
> performance, we would be fine with eagerly loading a bunch of classes as
> e.g. Java does.



I think (class) autoloading actually serves two purposes: as you say, it
allows lazy-loading, which was an important performance consideration
before opcache; but it also allows mapping of class name to file name. Java
still has to find the source file for each class mentioned, it just has a
more rigid set of rules for where it will look.

One of the big differences you'll see between PHP 4 and PHP 5 codebases is
the number of source files - when people had to manually list each file to
include, they tended to bundle things into larger categories; with
autoloading, they used one file per class. There's probably more
willingness to create new classes in such an arrangement, since they're
easier to find.

I think function autoloading would provide a similar shift in thinking:
rather than one big "functions.php", projects will put smaller batches of
functions together in tighter namespaces. That in turn will make it feel
more natural to create a new file of functions, rather than using a class
full of static methods just to create that grouping.

It doesn't enable anything that a script generating a list of include
statements couldn't, but PHP users aren't used to needing a "build" command
just to discover a new file, so function autoloading feels more natural.

Regards,
-- 
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]

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